One of the best ways to understand Augustus Caesar is to to look a the The Res Gestae Divi Augusti, his own summary of his achievements.
What kinds of things is Augustus proud of? What particularly impresses you? What insights do you get into Augustus' personality? Are there any suggestions of tragedy here?
Some of the things that Augustus is proud of are raising an army and taking full control of it only at the age of 19. Most individuals particularly in Rome struggled to maintain and run an army at an older age, let alone 19. Whether that was pure will or experience from his uncle Julius Ceasar, he’s pretty proud of it and should be proud of what he was able to accomplish with the army. He also mentions things that he’s proud of such as his influence in the Roman political system, and the power that he could’ve had, stating further that he was offered the dictatorship for Rome, which he denied, but again shows his influence in Roman politics especially at that young of an age. He also had consulship four times, which was out of the ordinary for the most part for individuals, as typically the highest amount of consulships they’d have would be one. He was able to maintain support with not just his men, but the entire Roman government as well. One final accomplishment that I’ll mention was the impact he made on the rest of the population, especially in regards to grain where he was able to distribute grain and other sources of relevance to 100,000 people. Reaching and expanding to other people helped gain his popularity, and made him someone that people looked up to and wanted to continue to support, which is one of the reasons why he was able to achieve more than one consulship and continue to have an active presence in the Roman government. Honestly, I was impressed with the amount of support he had from an early age and was able to establish a great career as a part of the Roman Empire. When you’re that young, you’re not expected to have tremendous amounts of success, especially with the Roman Empire which was established as one of the greatest empires of all time. I think having such a tremendous presence especially early on, and being so impactful for the Empire, he was able to grow and become such an influential person. Obviously being the heir to Julius Ceasar is a part of it, but it shows the amount of success he was able to have, and how he was able to get better and more influential down the line. I think it shows that Augustus was an extremely influential person in Roman society and was well-respected. I think one of the reasons he was able to have success was because he was able to establish connections with the Roman citizens themselves. At the end of the day, they are the ones who are responsible for how their government is run and who are tasked to lead their group, they continued to support Augustus and he was able to be the big winner that was mentioned during your lecture. I don’t think there’s a direct influence on tragedy down the line but who knows, this is in fact Rome. I think since this was highlighting all of his accomplishments that Augustus was able to have, and the background knowledge I have from the lecture, I think it’s hard to point out the area of tragedy down the line, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any disagreements or any issues down the line. Rome is consistently in battles both internally as well as externally. I'm curious to see down the line what happens and if there’s any direct correlation to this.
ReplyDelete- Nile Hesson
Some of the things that Augustus seems to be the most proud of are listed in the beginning of the summary. Specifically the first five or so paragraphs, in which he recounts how he raised an army to "champion the liberty of the republic", avenged the death of Caesar, mercifully winning several civil wars, and refused the offer of dictatorship.
ReplyDeleteSome of the things that impressed me included 5.1 and 23. In 5.1. he describes how he refused the office of dictator at least twice, both in his absence and in person from the people and the Senate. In 23, he describes how he staged a full-blown naval battle for display reasons. I find these two particularly interesting and impressive because it shows how he may have started out as a "humble" person but eventually devolved into a man who would stage 3,000-man fake naval battles to show off or to prove a point.
These also give me insight into what he was like as a person as he progressed in age. In the beginning of the summary of his life, he starts out by explaining what he had done for others that should be deemed noble. Things like avenging his dead adoptive father or quelling civil wars. Things that were for the good of Rome. Later on, he begins bragging about the good things that have been done for him, things like prayers and worship of the people, or having his name included in hymns.
this somewhat drastic change in personality does hint at tragedy for the Roman people, because as the saying goes, absolute power corrupts absolutely. As he changes his focus from the good he can do for the Roman people to the good they can do for him, the people of Rome undoubtedly suffered.
-Haylee Bohnet
I noticed that Augustus is proud of his military and political achievements since a lot of what he writes is based on those two things. I am impressed with the amount of times he was consul by that age, thirteen times is a crazy amount of time to be consul. It would be easy to understand that someone might think he is a boastful personality though looking into it you may also think that it is rather a diary or a means to write his own history which is no problem, the only things is that this text is based upon two pillars meaning it was meant for the public so perhaps the first option, boastfulness might be the case. Yes, suggestions of tragedy for the losses which he faced during his life amid the accomplishments.
ReplyDeleteAugustus is very proud of both his military and political deeds, and I noticed he writes a lot about them both. I am particularity impressed by the fact he exiled those that killed his parents and then further humiliated them by defeating them not once, but twice in battle. This just shows that he was a very strong man and wouldn't let evil sneak back into the empire he was so keen on keeping free of crime. The personality traits I get from him is that he is mean when he must be, but he is also a fair person. The only thing that suggests tragedy here is the implication that his parents were slaughtered when he was young and he may have some mental issues from that.
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